Once again, we will be taking part in WWF’s worldwide event The Earth Hour by turning off the lights on the facades of 312 hotels around the world between 8.30pm and 9:30pm on Saturday, 31 March. Considered the greatest call to action worldwide in the fight against climate change, this initiative has managed to persuade governments, businesses and citizens to switch off their lights as a gesture of their commitment to the environment.

The Earth Hour, a Word Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) initiative, is considered the biggest global mobilization campaign against climate change. During one hour, and for the fourth year in a row, we will collaborate with in this global blackout, a gesture expected to save 1,374,491 watts of power output at its hotels.

In line with this initiative, we are also running an awareness campaign through all our social networks to encourage our community and also all Internet users to join in this effort to save energy and fight climate change. We have “switched off” all our Corporate and local fanpages on Facebook to create awareness among our community members.

As in prior years, truly emblematic buildings around the world, including the Eiffel Tower (France), the Sydney Opera House (Australia) and Times Square (EEUU), will join the blackout. In Spain, WWF has already confirmed that the Segovia aqueduct, the Santa Bárbara Castle in Alicante and the Wall of Ávila will switch their lights off between 8:30pm and 9:30pm on next 31 March.

At the same time, and under the slogan I Will if You Will, the Earth Hour has set up an online platform with the help of YouTube to encourage citizens everywhere to share their sustainability initiatives by uploading their videos onto the portal answering the following question: What are you willing to do to save the planet?

Environmental responsibility is embedded into our corporate culture. Almost all of our hotels around the world are equipped with multiple eco-friendly solutions. As a result of the big effort within this field, our four key targets set at the start of the 2008-2012 Environmental Plan have been reached one year ahead of schedule. The Environmental Plan aimed to cut water consumption, waste generation, emissions and power usage by 20% eight years ahead of the EU target schedule. More specifically, we have cut power consumption per guest and night by 22.7%, while slashing carbon emissions by 40%, water usage by 27.5% and waste generation by 34.1%.